New South Wales Consolidated Acts

DISTRICT COURT ACT 1973 - SECT 161

161 Civil procedure rules

(1) The Rule Committee may make rules, not inconsistent with this Act, for or with respect to any matter--

• that by this Act, or by any other Act or law, is required or permitted to be prescribed by rules, or

• that is necessary or convenient to be prescribed by rules,

for the purposes of, or in connection with, the exercise by the Court of its civil jurisdiction under provisions of this Act, or of any other Act or law, or for carrying any such provisions into effect, and in particular for or with respect to--

(a) providing for the procedure (including the method of pleading) and the practice to be followed in the Court in all proceedings in which, or with respect to which, the Court has for the time being civil jurisdiction, and regulating or providing for any matters incidental to, or relating to, any such procedure or practice,

(b) subject to the provisions of any other Act, regulating and prescribing the procedure and practice to be followed in connection with the transfer of any proceedings to the Court from any other court or from the Court to any inferior court, and, where proceedings are transferred to the Court, the procedure and practice thereafter to be followed in the Court, and

(c) subject to the provisions of any other Act, regulating and prescribing the procedure and practice to be followed in connection with the institution of any appeal to the Court, including--

(i) the time within which, and the manner in which, the appeal is to be instituted, and

(ii) the procedure and practice thereafter to be followed in the Court.

(2) Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), rules may be made under that subsection for or with respect to--

(a) prescribing the powers, authorities, duties and functions of the Judicial Registrar, other registrars, assistant registrars, bailiffs, assistant bailiffs and other officers of the Court, and the Sheriff, and the records to be kept by them in relation to or for the purposes of any proceedings,

(b) enabling any specified registrar, in such circumstances as may be prescribed, to exercise the powers and authorities, and to discharge the duties and functions, of another specified registrar,

(c) providing for the sittings of the Court and the regulation of business at those sittings,

(d) prescribing and providing for the places at which particular proceedings may be heard, commenced or otherwise dealt with and prescribing the circumstances in which, and the conditions subject to which, the venue of proceedings or specified parts of proceedings may be changed,

(e) providing for the vacations and holidays of the Court and for the hearing and disposal of proceedings during any such vacations or holidays,

(f) providing for and regulating the joinder of causes of action and the consolidation of proceedings,

(g) providing for the bringing and disposal of proceedings by or against the executor, administrator or trustee of the estate of any person and providing for the enforcement of judgment in any such proceedings,

(h) prescribing or providing for the manner in which corporations may participate in proceedings,

(i) providing for the joinder of parties in proceedings,

(j) prescribing the cases or circumstances in which security may be required in relation to proceedings, the form of any such security, and the manner in which, and the person to whom, it is to be given,

(k) providing for pleading in relation to cross-claims (whether in the nature of set-off, cross-action or otherwise),

(l) empowering the Court to strike out the whole or any part of any proceedings brought by a party on the ground that the proceedings or part of the proceedings are frivolous or vexatious or disclose no cause of action, or on any other ground prescribed in the rules, and to reinstate any proceedings that have been struck out,

(m) providing for the trial or hearing of proceedings, including the giving of written or oral evidence and the production of documents and other things in evidence at the trial or hearing,

(n) regulating the means by which particular facts may be proved, and the mode in which evidence may be given (including the administration of oaths to and the taking of evidence of witnesses in or out of New South Wales), in any proceedings or in any application in connection with, or at any stage of, any proceedings,

(o) empowering the Court--

(i) to dispense with the rules of evidence for proving any matter that is not genuinely in dispute in any proceedings and to dispense with such rules of evidence as might cause expense or delay in proceedings if those rules were applied in specified circumstances, and

(ii) to require a party to any proceedings (not being a minor or person of unsound mind) to make admissions with respect to documents or questions of fact,

and prescribing the effects of and consequences for failing to comply with a requirement of the kind referred to in subparagraph (ii),

(p) prescribing matters relating to expert evidence, including the disclosure, by providing copies of reports or otherwise, of the nature of expert evidence to be given, and including the exclusion of expert evidence in the case of non-compliance with the rules relating to expert evidence or with any order for disclosure of the nature of expert evidence,

(q) providing for and regulating the payment or transfer of money into and out of the Court,

(r) providing for the manner and form in which, and the times and places at which, judgments, orders or other decisions of the Court may be given,

(s) empowering Judges to deal with and determine specified kinds of proceedings or specified parts of specified kinds of proceedings while sitting in chambers,

(t) prescribing the circumstances in which judgments may be set aside,

(u) providing for judgments by confession, agreement or consent and providing for orders for judgment, default judgments and orders for summary judgment and the circumstances in which such judgments and orders may be given or made,

(v) prescribing the circumstances in which a party to proceedings may be non-suited,

(w) enabling the Court to order that the amount of a judgment in favour of a person against another person be set off against an amount payable under another judgment in favour of that other person against the firstmentioned person,

(x) providing for matters relating to proceedings in which a person interpleads, including the staying of proceedings in courts other than the Court and for the barring of claims of persons who do not interplead when required to do so,

(y) providing for any matters relating to the costs of proceedings,

(z) empowering the Court to order the Australian legal practitioner for a party to particular proceedings personally to pay specified costs of the proceedings and to order further that the costs so specified not be recoverable by the Australian legal practitioner from that party,

(ac) prescribing matters relating to claims for, payment of, and entering up of judgment for, interest on money (including debts, damages and the value of goods) recovered or sought to be recovered in proceedings before the Court,

(ad) prescribing means for, and the procedure and practice to be followed in, the enforcement and execution of judgments and orders of the Court,

(ae) providing for the manner of payment of a judgment debt and prescribing the practice and procedure to be followed in relation to orders and agreements for varying the manner of payment of any such debt,

(af) empowering the Court to direct the manner or form of procedure to be followed in any particular proceedings in which the manner or form of procedure for taking any step in the proceedings is not prescribed by or under this Part,

(ag) providing for the service or giving of notices, documents and other instruments relating to proceedings,

(ah) providing for the amendment of documents filed by a party to any proceedings,

(ai) prescribing the times for doing or not doing any act or thing for the purposes of this Act or the rules in or in relation to any proceedings, and

(aj) interim payments.

(4) The rules may make provision for or with respect to the bringing of money into the Court by a defendant in any proceedings and, without affecting the generality of the foregoing provisions of this subsection, may make provision for or with respect to--

(a) prescribing the manner in which money may be so brought into the Court,

(b) without affecting the generality of paragraph (a), deeming money to be brought into the Court if there is filed a security given by--

(i) the Government Insurance Office under the Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) Act 1942 or the Transport Accidents Compensation Act 1987 or where the matter relates to a cause of action which arose before 1 July 1984, an authorised insurer under that Act,

(ii) a licensed insurer under the Workers' Compensation Act 1926 , or

(iii) any other person authorised by the Court,

(c) requiring the Government Insurance Office, insurer or other person who gives a security as referred to in paragraph (b) to pay the amount for which the security was given in the prescribed circumstances and providing that any such amount not so paid may be enforced as a judgment against the Government Insurance Office, insurer or other person, and

(d) determining the effect on the cause or causes of action on which the proceedings were brought where the plaintiff accepts the money so brought into the Court.

(5) A provision of the rules may--

(a) apply generally or be limited in its application by reference to specified exceptions or factors,

(b) apply differently according to different factors of a specified kind, or

(c) authorise any matter or thing to be from time to time determined, applied or regulated by any specified person or body,

or may do any combination of those things.

(6) This section does not give power to make rules with respect to any matter relating to costs that is regulated by the legal costs legislation (as defined in section 3A of the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 ).

(6A) This section does not give power to make rules in terms inconsistent with those of the uniform rules under the Civil Procedure Act 2005 unless the uniform rules expressly permit rules under this section to be made in those terms.

(6B) The rules made under this section may authorise or require the use of an electronic case management system established under clause 2 of Schedule 1 to the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 in relation to any proceedings in a court in respect of which the use of such a system is authorised by an order in force under clause 3 of Schedule 1 to that Act.

(6C) The rules made under this section may provide for the exercise by a registrar or other officer of the Court of any of the Court's administrative or judicial functions under this or any other Act and for the review by the Court of the exercise by a registrar or other such officer of any such function.

(7) A practice note (including any other document, however described, which regulates the practice or procedure of the Court, or of any class of proceedings in the Court, but excluding a decision of the Court) issued by or on behalf of the Court must be published in the Gazette.

(8) Sections 40 and 41 of the Interpretation Act 1987 apply to a practice note in the same way as they apply to a statutory rule.